El Salvador Releases Second Woman Jailed Over Abortion

A Salvadoran woman serving a 30-year sentence for aggravated homicide over an alleged abortion after she was raped was released from prison on Tuesday having served half her sentence.

Maira Figueroa is released from prison in El Salvador after serving 15 years of a 30-year sentence for having an abortionMARVIN RECINOS, AFP

Maira Figueroa is the second woman jailed under the Central American country’s severe anti-abortion laws to have her sentence commuted by the Supreme Court this year.

“I am happy to be with my family,” Figueroa, 34, told reporters outside the Women’s Prison in San Salvador following her release.

“I hope that other women are given the opportunity to go free.”

She had served 15 years of her sentence, imposed when she was 19 years old.

Another Salvadoran woman, Teodora Vasquez, was freed in February. She had served 11 years of a 30-year sentence after being accused of an abortion following a stillbirth.

Vasquez was among those waiting to greet Figueroa on her release. The two women embraced outside the prison walls.

Under a law that came into force in 1998, all abortions are illegal in El Salvador, regardless of whether the pregnancy results from rape — as in Figueroa’s case — or poses a medical threat to the woman.

Prison terms range from two to eight years, but women can be charged with more serious crimes instead, as in both women’s cases.